CHICAGO – The Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University will
receive $500,000 from the Illinois attorney general’s office to assist
statewide efforts to rebuild Illinois communities that have been devastated by
the national foreclosure crisis. The award is part of $70 million allotted to
efforts in Illinois by the attorney general’s office and stems from a $25
billion national settlement obtained last year. Illinois Attorney General Lisa
Madigan announced today the 54 proposals that would be funded.

IHS will use its award to expand their housing data clearinghouse
to include the eight-county Chicago region. Currently, the institute collects an
extensive amount of property-level housing data, including data on foreclosure
activity, property sales and transfers, mortgages, and property taxes, for Cook
County. Using the award from the foreclosure settlement, they will expand this
data collection to include data from Lake, Will, Kane, DuPage, DeKalb, McHenry
and Kendall counties. This data expansion and other data collection efforts
will allow IHS to assist the attorney general’s office and other settlement
awardees in guiding their efforts as well as analyzing their impact in affected
neighborhoods.

“This award represents not just an opportunity for us to
assist the settlement awardees in targeting their efforts toward the hardest
hit communities, but it also allows us to expand the areas where we are able
produce in-depth research and analysis,” said Geoff Smith, executive
director.

“The expansion of our research area to the eight-county Chicago
region will allow us to do more comprehensive analysis of issues affecting access
to affordable rental housing and the recovery of neighborhood housing markets
for the entire Chicago region, not just the city and suburban Cook County,” he said.

The original $25 billion National Foreclosure Settlement
with the country’s five largest bank mortgage servicers addressed allegations
of widespread robo-signing of documents and other fraudulent practices by banks
during foreclosure proceedings.

The Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul is a research center that
provides analysis and data to inform affordable housing policy and practice.
More at www.housingstudies.org.